So what should he drink now?

[purplehonesty]

DS is 13m now and I am thinking of giving up Bfing if I can get the wee man to drink something other than BM.
At the moment he doesn't drink anything other than water and is bf twice a day (bedtime and 4am grr). I have tried cows milk cold, warm, hot, in a cup, bottle, with a straw. But he only every takes two or three sips and then starts spitting it out.
I tried some formula stuff on saturday on the advice of the pharmacist cos apparently it tastes more like bm; he seemed to quite like this and had about 7 sips.
But thats it, he won't drink anymore and doesn't seem to associate drinking with cups/bottles, just boobs.
SO my question is...can I just stop bfing and give me milky foods and a great diet or does he still need milk to drink.
AND if he does still need it, how on earth do I get him to drink it?

I'm in a similar situation and have decided (for now) to continue with the bf, as it's the path of least resistance. DD doesn't seem to take very much milk from me though, so am planning to try and increase milky things in her diet eg: more things in cheese sauce, yoghurt every day

I'd just keep on offering him cows milk and I bet eventually he'll start drinking it

Gin

Yeah, I don't really want to stop feeding him for any reason, in fact I'll be very sad to stop but i just feel that its about time for both of us. I don't want to be feeding him when he's 2 plus really, I think thats too long for me.

So I have to stop at some point and it would be great to get a full nights sleep if I could wean him off the 4am feed.
I thought if he took a bottle at night he might sleep longer- myth perhaps.

Conflicting advice though - some say ok with no milk to drink, others he must have a pint a day. who is right?!

Gin...I haven't got any though

My now 8yr old never drank milk from any source until the age of 4 once he stopped breastfeeding. Ate lots of plain yoghurt and cheese.

Maybe he's already found it. No wonder he's not keen on the milk after that.

I bf my DS up to 13 months. He resolutely refused a bottle in any way shape or form either with formula or my milk (... he's still stubborn btw). He would only have the odd bit of follow on milk or cows milk from a sippy cup until he was about 2. However, he got milk in other ways - porridge for breakfast, endless yoghurt, chees etc. My HV said it was fine to do this as long as he got milk products and protein in his diet somehow.

If he is getting calcium from other sources such as cheese and yogurt, as well as BM, then he should be fine. I wouldn't go down the formula route if I were you, it is pointless, expensive and possibly hard to wean him off if he gets a taste for it. If you would like him to drink cows milk just keep offering him some every day and he may take to it at some point. If he has a low-sugar diet most of the time then you could offer him a warm, chocolaty drink at some point during the day with a couple of cubes of cheese as a snack.

Tricky one, if he doesn't want anything else. I wouldn't worry about stopping, it just kind of happens without stressing about it.
I bf'd until my DS was three. He very, very rarely wanted to feed when we were out after about 18 months, so just when it suited us.
I did the 'never offer, never refuse' thing so that I didn't remind him about feeding, just left it up to him.
TBH I did refuse when he got older, on the odd occasion I just didn't feel like it and he was OK with that.
I remember introducing cow's milk and water when he was around 12 months. Don't remember how long it took him to drink it, but I do remember it was from a Boots bottle thingy, which had handles, so he could hold it himself and a kind of broad teat thing, which could later be replaced with a different kind of lid.
I searched for boots trainer cup on Google and I think this is the one we used
I think this is the one we used
I think he quite liked holding it, but he had been given ebm from a bottle for ages before so was quite accustomed to that sort of thing.
Do you think he might like some kind of luke warm, weak herbal tea, like fennel or chamomile, it might taste a bit more interesting than water?
I think bm is pretty sweet so it could be he prefers something slightly sweeter?
Can't think of a way of sweetening a drink which isn't controversial, perhaps a bit of honey?

I was going to start a new thread but maybe I can jump on here?! I BF my DS, who also has a bedtime bottle of formula, and formula if he is staying with granny / I'm out for any length of time. He's very happy to drink formula, and takes a standard bottle.
I'm going to carry on BF for as long as I am comfortable with it, but he will be starting nursery soon three days a week. He will be just over 1yr when he goes, so I was planning on him having just cows milk in the day when he's there, and also replacing his bedtime formula to full fat cows milk too. Is this the right thing to do?
On non-nursery days, and in the morning / at the end of the nursery session he'll be BF as he is now.
I'm hoping he will take cows milk, if he doesn't then I'll prob carry on with the formula, but I just want to check that stopping the FF / having days when he is not BF for long periods of time is giving him adequate nutrients? I know I know the answer, which is of course it will, but I just want reassurance!!!

Ah the internet gremlins have let me back online today. thanks very much for all the advice guys, sorry I didn't get to log in earlier.
For the past 3 nights he hasn't had a night feed and hasn't cried or fussed, just stirred and gurgled a bit then gone back to sleep. So now I feel loads better, more sleep and feel like I can carry on with the bedtime feed no bother and just persevere with the cows milk through the day.
thanks again.